Friday, November 16, 2007

It is a warm humid night here now, the beginning of summer heat. I cannot sleep until I share with you the words of Dorothy Nador, a 75 year old Israeli woman who refuses to concede her humanity. Night speaks to night.

Dear Friends,

While the politicians are daily mouthing Annapolis and the concessions that Israel will/will not (should/should not) give the Palestinians, the occupation goes on as usual--in the OPT and also for Israeli Palestinians ( i.e., Palestinians who are Israeli citizens) revealing the true intentions of Israel's government. Actions do, after all, speak louder than words. And in point of fact life has not eased an iota for Palestinians. Daily--or rather, nightly, I mean—the IOF 'detains' (read that 'kidnaps') Palestinians from their beds at 2:00 AM or 1:00 AM or 3:00 AM. Daily the Israeli morning radio news reports the nameless numbers of the Palestinians the IOF has kidnapped that night—from 4 to 20. It's hard to imagine that there is more room in the jails, with some 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in them. And the demolitions continue, too—a Palestinian school here, a Palestinian home there. Be glad you are not Palestinian!

I well remember Dar Elhanoun, the 'unrecognized' Israeli Arab village threatened with demolitions. I was with Ta'ayush when we helped pave the road, build a children's playground, and enjoyed meeting the residents, listening to their trials and tribulations. I remember the first time that I drove to the village—located on the top of a hill overlooking the sea in the far distance. A police car stopped me on the way to the village. I hadn't noticed it creeping up on me as I drove up the hill. It stopped me. The police began interrogating me: where was I going, why, and so on and so forth, till I asked if I had mistakenly landed in the Territories. The police responded no, and with that I asked to be allowed to go on my way. I was allowed to. But the police got there first. Nevertheless, apart from getting our names and watching, they did not on that occasion drive us away. If I recall correctly, we were at the village 2-3 days. I personally did not sleep there (my back can't take sleeping on the ground any more), but came back daily to work with the others. As is the wont of work camps, there was great camaraderie, and good feeling. But we knew that technically speaking we were engaging in civil disobedience by building the road. After all, unrecognized villages are not supposed to have paved roads! The road and the children's playground were finished before 9/11, and although there have been threats by the powers to be to demolish them, they are still their. Now it seems that the government has awakened and wants the land without the people. Great to be an Arab citizen of 'the only democracy in the Middle East.' There are no Israeli Jewish unrecognized villages. And Israeli Jewish homes are not demolished. That bit of democratic act is left for use primarily on the Palestinians.

Nite,DorothyBe glad you are not Palestinians or Iraquis or Somalians or or Burmese or New Orleanians and once it was and still can be, be glad you are not Jewish. We`must not turn our eyes away--so huge seems their control--the rants of Fox news propagandists, the hunger of the corporations, the stacked Supreme Court, the faith and family and nation marchers, so deadly to their own dreams, the smiling apologists for murders writing their New York Times columns with a boyish wink--it would be so easy to go to sleep as if a deep deep snow was falling upon us, to turn away from our knowledge of the young lying in their unseen military coffins, but this is the sleep we must refuse, rest yes and then in our time, little by little, reclaim our public humanity. This government and all it has brought to the world must be overthrown.

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About Me

A new undertaking--from a 67 year old Jewish lesbian fem, writer, archivist who believes Israel's occupation of Palestine must stop--you can read more about my life and work at Joannestle.com--but these pages are more immediate--here I will answer men of power with my own passions.